EREWHON

300×130×80cm, Victorian barbs from the 19th century, plastic, iron, and aluminium chains, National Pavilion of the Republic of Nauru, 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Iv Toshain, 2026.

Erewhon (named after Samuel Butler’s 1872 novel) is a flag of a fictional empire composed of Victorian spiked chains. In the colours blue, black, white, red, and yellow, the work quotes colonial vexillological colour codes. Towards the bottom, the flag dissolves into a dense, matted mass of synthetic, aluminium, and iron chains – a powerful symbol of entropy, anarchy, and decay that reflects both climate collapse and the consequences of postcolonialism.

Nauru, the smallest island nation in the world, is presenting its own national pavilion for the first time at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Under the title AIM Inundated: Imagining Life After Land, the group exhibition explores issues of climate change, environmental destruction, and postcolonial questions from a global perspective.

The exhibition is curated by Khaled Ramada. Associated curators Camilla Boemio and Stefano Cagol. Commissioner Isabella Dageago, M.P. Deputy Minister in the Government of Nauru. 

Participating artists: Kauw Tsitsi (Nauru), CPS –
Ramadan (Danmark) & Cramerotti (Qatar), Patricia Jacomella Bonola (Switzerland), Tedo Rekhviashvili (Georgia), Sylvia Grace Borda (Canada), Ron Laboray (USA), Dorian Batycka (Poland), Khaled Hafez (Egypt), Iv Toshain (Austria), Stefano Cagol (Italy).

National Pavilion of the Republic of Nauru, La Biennale di Venezia, Spazio Castello, Calle Bosello 3683, Venice.